Analyzer

Overview
Proven Mission-Critical Business Intelligence

Intro to
Analyzer
Strategy Companion Mission and
Value Proposition
In the past, reporting has been controlled by a few
trained data experts typically in IT because most
managers and employees dont have the skills to
query data or use complex BI tools. IT developers
are overwhelmed with requests for new reports and
users are frustrated at not being able to react quickly
to changes in the business.
Now, the incredibly easy-to-use Analyzer allows
even non-technical users to become productive
quickly, performing powerful analysis and building
visually compelling dashboards and flexible reports.
A wide variety of components, including pivot tables,
charts, Key Performance Indicator (KPI) scorecards,
dashboards, web pages, Reporting Services
reports, and more, lets users create custom information by just dragging and dropping onto the page.
As Business Intelligence (BI) becomes more pervasive and is shared among not only internal users, but
customers, partners, distributors, and suppliers, it is
essential that reporting and analytics are easy to use,
administer, and deploy. Analyzer leads the way,
offering users self-service BI through a 100%
zero-footprint browser interface that can be
accessed from anywhere and requires no client
installation. No longer do users have to wait in line
for new reports or access to data.
Harnessing the powerful partnership with Microsofts
SQL Server Analysis Services, Analyzers OLAPbased design lets users explore the data in any
direction, allowing them to validate theories and learn
more about the business. The seamless integration
with SQL Server continues as Analyzer helps users
build intelligent dashboards and reports using SQL
Servers KPI feature.
Analyzers powerful advanced analytics combine with
an open architecture and intuitive interface to
empower technical and non-technical decision
makers. With analysis and reporting directly in the
hands of the users, more effective analysis is
performed by the people who know your business
best, resulting in better decision-making throughout
your entire organization.
Customer Quote
Our users were very impressed at how easy the tools were to
use and how effortlessly they could create informative reports.
The IT Department was pleased that there was so little effort
implementing and supporting Analyzer. It just works!
-- Chad Cassady, Director of Information Technology at PH Tech

Intro to Analyzer 01

The

Analyzer

Difference

Competition keeps your business moving can your

analysis keep up? Business is changing every day,
requiring you to quickly analyze and respond to a
broad range of metrics and KPIs. Analyzer is a
dynamic and powerful data analysis and visualization
tool that is easy to use and manage, and provides
self-service Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities to
users across the enterprise and beyond.

Analyzer Target Audience

Business leaders who need to monitor key performance metrics ensuring the health of the business and
who want at-a-glance views that quickly alert them to
changes needing attention.
Business Analysts who want to analyze data in a
variety of ways and be able to immediately drill down
to the underlying details to answer the new questions
the trends generate without waiting for IT to run
another query or build another report.
Every information worker who seeks to understand the
business and wants to collaborate and share
comments on what the business trends indicate and
what actions should be taken.
IT managers who want to enable users with selfservice BI and use time previously spent developing
reports and supporting users to now work on highvalue, strategic projects.
Data-driven OEMs that want to provide value-added
insight and information to customers by embedding
Analyzer into their existing customer-facing applications.

The speed of business is accelerating, making it important

to quickly identify and respond to business trends and
issues. Your suppliers and partners depend on it. Your
customers expect it. But, there are challenges standing in
your way. Reporting and analysis have been relegated to
those who have the technical skill sets to work with
complicated BI tools or SQL queries. Your IT department is
overwhelmed with the number and complexity of requests
for new reports and analytical support.
At Strategy Companion, we believe that Business Intelligence is a core capability that every user in every organization should have, like e-mail. However, studies by Gartner
and others show that ease-of-use is one of the biggest
obstacles preventing adoption of BI in companies today.
Interactive BI tools have primarily addressed just the
business analystsuntil now.
Analyzer empowers business users with an incredibly
easy to use set of analytical tools, dramatically increasing
the quality of their analysis and understanding of key
business issues. Analyzers advanced visualization,
presentation, and collaboration capabilities allow analysts
and decision makers to quickly see and communicate
information that is relevant and intuitive, leading to better
decisions.

Enhances operational performance

Its not only what you learn from the data, its what you do
with what you learn. Analyzer offers a variety of views,
including dashboards, reports, and visually-compelling
charts and graphs to help users monitor KPIs and business
process metrics to quickly identify key business issues.
Users can share comments and recommend actions
through Analyzers collaboration capabilities. Analyzer
links operational metrics with management objectives and
business strategies for superior performance management.

Easy to use

Your users already have enough to learn about the business

without having to learn to use yet another tool. They want to
be able to track business trends in a way that is familiar and
easy and Analyzer allows them to do just that. Its intuitive,
web-based interface lets users analyze data in highly visual

dynamic reports and dashboards. Analyzers drag-and

-drop interface lets users quickly build custom reports with
little or no training. Designed for use with Internet Explorer
or through effortless integration with SharePoint, users can
work with Analyzer in a recognizable and comfortable
environment. Analyzer can also be embedded into your
internal applications, bringing powerful operational business
intelligence to more effectively manage business processes.

Enables confident decision making

Accurate analysis depends on accurate reports. Your

business cant wait for users to determine whether a trend is
real or just a query error. Analyzer leverages web-based
pivot tables that allow users to slice and dice data to get the
perspective on the business they need. Users can then
drill-down to the underlying details without writing any
queries or building new reports. Analyzer uses Online
Analytical Processing (OLAP) technology that sources
detailed data and generates its own queries, ensuring every
perspective is based on a single version of the truth, and
preventing errors that may happen when users write their
own SQL queries. Business leaders can feel confident that
the decisions they make are based on solid, reliable
information.

Easy to deploy and manage

IT managers have a hard enough time managing the variety
of systems across the enterprise. Analyzer integrates
seamlessly with your existing Microsoft architecture, with
minimal effort. Maximizing your investment in Microsoft SQL
Server, Analyzer utilizes virtually all of the newest BI
features available in MS SQL Server Analysis Services and
also supports integration with Reporting Services. Analyzer
offers ultra-high performance, leaving your users free to
manage the business when it happens. With Analyzers
web-based, 100% true zero-footprint, there is no need for
client installations and users can access their reports from
any connected PC. User access is managed through SQL
Servers Active Directory. Analyzer also supports LDAP or
users can be added manually.

Extends beyond the enterprise

The value of data and information extends beyond corporate boundaries, so its natural that business intelligence
should too. More and more companies are realizing the
value their data has to their customers, suppliers, partners,
and others outside of the corporation. Analyzers 100% true
zero-footprint allows your information to be easily accessed
beyond the corporate walls. Create new revenue opportunities by providing customers with an attractive and easy way
to access your data. OEMs can customize the Analyzer
UI and leverage Analyzers open API through web services
to embed analyzer into existing applications, accelerating
time-to-market of bringing analytical functionality to
customers.

The Analyzer Difference 02

In your companys data is valuable information

that can be used to set you apart from the
competition. The faster that information is
accessed and acted upon, the better chance
your company has to be successful.
Analyzer helps companies manage corporate performance quickly and easily. By
monitoring key performance indicators in
Analyzers scorecards, users can quickly see
the how the metrics are trending and can
receive e-mail alerts if a metric has exceeded
a threshold. From the scorecard, users can
drill-down directly into operational reports for
finer detail and then move seamlessly into
Analyzers powerful analytics to explore root
causes.
Analyzers drag-and-drop interface runs in a
true zero-footprint environment, making it
easy to use and simple to deploy and manage.
Users are empowered to create their own
reports, do their own analysis, and build their
own scorecards, allowing them to manage
corporate performance as it happens.

Reporting

See what is happening

across the enterprise
Theres an old saying, If you arent measuring it,
it must not be important. Today, more than ever,
understanding your business activities is critical
to making quality decisions that keep your
business competitive. Some measure by gut-feel,
but the winning companies use objective,
quantifiable measurements based on factual data.
Those winning companies rely on reports from
every area of the business from supply chain to
sales and marketing measuring everything
from quality and productivity to profit margins and
customer loyalty. However, producing all of these
reports takes a toll on your IT group.
The demand for more information has created a
backlog of new report requests that are difficult
for IT to manage. Every day, requests for new
reports arrive. Smart CIOs know that the answer
depends on making users self-sufficient and
providing them with the ability to satisfy their own
reporting needs.
Analyzer is intuitive and makes it easy to
navigate large amounts of data quickly by offering
a full range of capabilities that enable your users
to create new reports, analyze trends, and share
results. With Analyzer, users can complete their
own information cycle.

Build New Reports

Analyzer makes building new reports easy.

Working in a familiar Windows-style environment, users drag and drop components to create
new reports. Analyzers one-click functionality
with context sensitive menus make Analyzer
easy to learn.
Users, report designers, and administrators each
access Analyzer through their web browser,
which provides them with full functionality to
view, create, manage, and share information
based on their role. Analyzer works in a single
browser instance using tabs to let users access
multiple reports.
Components are the building blocks of reports
and there are many components to choose from.
Users can build reports using tabular data in pivot
tables, visually-compelling charts and graphs,
business process diagrams, web pages, or
Reporting Services reports, allowing them to
choose the best way to present the information.
Each page is made up of one or many components, giving the user the flexibility to display
multiple metrics. Each component is based on
data from cube-based dimensions, measures,
named sets, and key performance indicators,

as well as the underlying data from the relational database.

Analyzers tight integration with Microsofts SQL Server
allows users to take advantage of Reporting Services
reports by embedding them into their reports and
passing parameters back to Reporting Services directly.
Users can also drag-and-drop between an Analyzer
report and Reporting Services report.
In addition to building custom reports, users can also add
conditional formatting for the highest impact. In-table
visualization features bring the reports to life. Colorful
highlights, stoplights, and data bars can be added alongside the values in each report cell for quick, visual analysis.
Analyzers color themes allow users to change color on any
report or report component to make them easy to find and
organize.
As users work with Analyzer, the step list function tracks
every action during the session, allowing them to return to a
previous state anytime, giving users the freedom and
confidence they need to try new ways to analyze and
present their data.

color-coded sticky notes with their questions, comments,

and instructions. Users can also quickly highlight report
areas of interest in multiple colors corresponding to one or
more of the sticky notes which have been annotated to
the report.
Once the report is ready to share, it can be e-mailed using
Analyzers built-in messaging system or through your
standard e-mail system. Reports are stored in Analyzers
folder system, making them easily accessible to other,
authorized user.
Many companies today have locations in different parts of
the world. Analyzer can be accessed in multiple
languages, allowing for broad deployment across global
companies. With one click, reports can instantly be
converted to any number of languages using SQL Servers
multiple-language feature.
Reports can tell you what is happening, but to learn why,
users need to dig in and analyze the data.

View and Analyze the Data

As users view the data, they find trends theyd like to

explore. Users can take advantage of Analyzers advanced
ordering, sorting, and filtering capabilities. Rows inside of
tables can be re-ordered to bring more important categories
to the top. Data values can also be ordered and sorted,
which is especially helpful when there are hundreds of rows
returned. Data can be ordered to show values ascending or
descending, and top and bottom number or percentages.
Advanced filtering makes it simple to apply Boolean
expressions to values or text.
For large, complex reports, the zoom feature lets users
focus on particular areas, and natural-language search lets
users find reports containing certain properties using
familiar terms or names.
Analyzers bookmarks allow users to quickly find and share
their favorite views of the data. Bookmarks can be either
personal or shared, and are available in the easily accessible bookmark list. Users give each report user-friendly
names and can add detailed descriptions that will help other
users find reports that fit their needs.

Analyzer reports and dashboards can contain multiple sheets, each with multiple
components such as pivot tables, charts, web pages, Reporting Services reports,
scorecards, and more.

Users can also subscribe to favorite reports and receive

them via email according to a schedule they define.
Administrators can also do this on behalf of users, as well
as set up event-driven triggers which will cause a report to
be emailed to one or more users when a certain business
condition occurs.
Users may have existing spreadsheet-based models they
wish to use in conjunction with Analyzer. Analyzer
makes this easy with a one-click export to Excel so users
can continue their analysis in other favorite tools.

Share the Results

The real value in information is getting it in the hands of

someone who can take action. Analyzer completes the
information cycle by making it easy to share results.
Analyzers unique collaboration features let users overlay

Microsoft Reporting Services reports can also be included within an Analyzer

report or dashboard. These parameter-driven reports allow you to show the related
detail information of your choice via a simple right-click.

Reporting 03

Analytics
Uncover Trends
in Business Performance
Your information is the only thing your competitors cant
replicate, and hidden in that information are insights that
can help you widen the competitive gap. Staying competitive requires faster and better-informed decisions.
Operational reports provide necessary information but
often generate additional questions. Reports can tell you
what is happening, but its the analysis that provides the
fuller story about when it happened, where it happened,
and potentially why it happened.
When users are ready to further investigate, Analyzers
rich analytics helps users explore deeper into the data to
find hidden insights. Analyzer leverages SQL Servers
OLAP technology which allows users to easily analyze
data from any perspective. Users can quickly locate
problems and drill-down to look for root causes.

OLAP technology allows analysis to be free-flowing,

letting users follow their thoughts, without risking query
errors. OLAP technology structures the data so that any
possible question and possible combination of the data is
always answered based on the same original data set,
and the technology automatically generates the queries,
reducing any potential for introduced errors. Analyzer
allows even non-technical users to perform analysis from
the simple to very complex with the confidence of
knowing that their results are based on sound data.

Interactive Visualization

Analyzers interactive charts deliver valuable analytical

insights, illustrating not just the degree of change from one
point in time to the next, but also the shape, velocity and
direction of change. By putting data in motion, users can
spot trends and see details they might otherwise miss.
These visual analytics help users interpret data and discover
both expected and unexpected results. With dozens of
different charts and graphs, there are a number of ways to
visually display the information. Users can choose to display
data in standard bar, line, and pie charts or more advanced
charts such as candlestick, funnel, scatter, or bubble charts.
Analyzers unique heat map function helps users quickly
locate problem areas by both size and impact.
Once charts are displayed, Analyzer offers further
customization to help users interpret the data. In 3-D bar
and column charts, smaller data values can sometimes be
hidden behind larger values. Analyzer provides the ability to
add transparency to the bars, allowing smaller bars to show
through. Users can also rotate the charts both up and down
and side to side. Plus, Analyzer lets you choose between
a two-dimensional display and a three-dimensional display,
allowing each chart or graph to be optimally expressed.
Users can further customize the charts through access to
the axes settings. Adjustments can be made to the scale of
the X and Y axes, as well as the spacing, style, and title.
This allows the chart to portray the information in a way that
makes the most sense for the viewer.

properties. This gives the user even greater analytical power

as they can explore each dimension more fully and gain
even more insight.
Analyzers drill down and drill up functions let users explore
the data thoroughly. As they drill down into lower-level
details, Analyzers data source viewer allows users to get at
the source data by drilling through the OLAP cube to access
the relational tables. If there is a particular area of interest,
the user can see the underlying table-based data.

Coordinate and Organize Results

As users analyze the data, they find new views, both visual
and tabular, that they now want to save and track. As they
create these new charts and tables, Analyzer allows them
to be added to the same report, providing easy access to
important metrics and information in a single location.
By default, any changes in the pivot-table data are reflected
in the charts. However, users can unlock the charts from the
table to allow independent tracking and analysis. Charts can
also be easily copied or moved to other related reporting
pages in the set.
With charts and tables in hand, users are ready to put them
all together for comprehensive corporate performance
management.

Explore and Discover

Every Analyzer chart is dynamic and interactive, which

enables users to make changes at the speed of thought. As
new ideas and questions come up, users can drill down or
filter the data and instantly see the results.
Sometimes the trends are not immediately obvious.
Analyzer has a number of pre-defined measures to help
highlight and locate trends. Calculations such as ranking,
percentage, time series, rolling summaries and growth rates
help users identify directions in the data, and grouping
functions like top/bottom performers and 80/20 rule help
identify standouts in the data.
Companies often have unique ways they need to look at
information. Analyzer provides the flexibility to create
custom measures and even custom MDX coding within the
report. If this customization is need for more than one
report, Analyzer can leverage any custom measures or
MDX that is defined in SQL Server.

Powerful built-in time-related functions allow non-technical users to easily compare

performance over a variety of time periods, instantly seeing growth rates, percentages,
and more without writing any code at all.

Product managers and department leaders often manage a

subset of the companys products. Analyzer allows users
to define named sets, such as product subsets, and reuse
them in a report. Named sets that are used frequently are
usually defined in SQL Server, where they can be shared
across multiple Analyzer reports and dashboards.
Data dimensions, such as customer and product, often have
member properties that are defined in SQL Server. For
example, a member property of customer might be
customer zip code. In addition to the usual dimension
reporting such as customer or product, users are able to
report on and analyze using these dimension member

Analyzer provides several dozen types of high-quality, compelling 2D and 3D interactive

charts, giving you the flexibility to visualize your data in the most effective manner.
Examples shown here are Histogram, BoxPlot, Candlestick, and Pareto charts.

Analytics 04

Dashboards

Align at-a-glance insight with

corporate perfomance
Corporate performance management is the art of
linking strategy to core processes and activities
through actionable metrics found in dashboards
and scorecards. Analyzer makes corporate
performance management easy by bringing
together key performance indicators to provide
focus on important areas that are critical to
success.
Scorecards are generally used to help communicate and refine the corporate strategy by delivering
a consistent view of the metrics that matter most.
By understanding how key performance indicators
compare to their targets, companies can measure
their progress towards achieving strategic
objectives. Dashboards are often more tactical and
monitor business processes for quick decisions
and immediate action.
In the past, scorecards and dashboards have been
time-consuming to build and were often displayed
in flat reports. Analyzer quickly brings scorecards and dashboards to life with its interactive,
visual format. Every metric and chart can be easily
changed to suit the business need, with no need
for IT intervention. Using Microsoft SQL Servers
powerful OLAP technology and KPI features,
Analyzer delivers powerful scorecard functionality
with dynamic data that is the key to successful
corporate performance management.

Managing Corporate Performance Using

Scorecards and Dashboards
Analyzer makes it easy for any business user to create
custom scorecards and dashboards by mixing and matching a variety of reporting components. Components include
pivot tables, charts and graphs, analytic boards, KPI
viewers, process diagrams, web pages, and Reporting
Services reports. Each of these components leverages
SQL Servers standard and custom measures as well as
SQL Servers KPI feature. In addition, custom measures can
be created in Analyzer, with or without writing MDX
expressions, to provide trending and forecasting information.
Analyzers easy-to-build pivot tables and charts can help
users quickly build dashboards that provide multiple views
and metrics. When KPIs are added to pivot tables, they not
only present the metric, but also present icons that represent the status and trend. Immediately, users can understand the health and direction of the information they care
about most. Plus, the data is always as current as the most
recent cube refresh.

Business Process Monitoring

Managing corporate performance would not be complete
without visibility into supporting business processes.
Analyzers KPI Process Diagrams make it easy to monitor
the business from a process flow perspective looking at
high-level processes from an enterprise view or more
detailed processes at the department view. Process owners
can drag and drop their KPIs onto the page and choose
from directional arrows and process blocks to build each
business process. Each process step can have multiple
KPIs that display the actual metric, the metric status and the
metric trend.

Analyzers KPI Viewer brings even more visibility into KPIs.

As users add KPIs to the viewer, the actual, current status,
trend, and variance are automatically displayed. Users can
then add even more visibility to KPIs by assigning an
importance rating which can be used to select, organize,
and sort your KPIs.
The analytic board component uses a variety of graphical
icons, including different styles of arrows and gauges, to
visually represent data and KPIs. These icons can be easily
positioned and sized as users create their dashboards, and
the color and text can also be formatted. For added
context, images such as maps can be uploaded into the
graphics library and used as background images in the
dashboard component. Users can use map images as
backgrounds in the dashboard component and overlay
gauges and icons on them to offer a geographic perspective.

Analyzer supports the use of Key Performance Indicators in your Corporate

Performance Management initiatives with powerful and intuitive dashboards
featuring Intelligent Mapping, Scorecards, Business Process Diagrams, and more.

Analyzers powerful, flexible user interface brings depth to

corporate performance management by enabling users to
transition seamlessly from scorecards and dashboards into
analysis and detailed reports. As users spot interesting
trends, Analyzers interactive format allows users to easily
drill down to more detailed data.
Multiple scorecard and dashboard components can be
tracked together using the group function. This allows
changes in one component to be replicated across the
group. Individual KPIs can also be carefully monitored using
Analyzers watch list. The watch list brings important KPIs to
the users Analyzer home page for quick review.

Multiple metrics can be represented on the same Analyzer Intelligent Map

simultaneously, as shown in this example with the use of both color and icon sets.

Dashboards 05

Analyzer + SQL Server =

The Ultimate BI Solution

The combination of Analyzer and SQL Server creates the

ultimate BI solution, offering advanced business intelligence
that is easy to use and manage, with a proven ability to
support large-scale, mission-critical enterprise BI all with a
low cost of ownership.

Architecting a Successful BI Solution

IT Managers appreciate Analyzers flexible architecture and
multiple deployment options. Depending on the preference
of the organization and users, Analyzer can be deployed
for 100% zero-footprint access directly through the Internet
Explorer web browser, or can be deployed for access
through SharePoint portals. Analyzer can also be
deployed as Software-as-a-Service, freeing up precious IT
resources. In addition, Analyzer may be embedded into
existing applications through the use of web services, to
support the analysis needs of internal systems like CRM
and ERP as well as applications of your own you sell to
your customers.
Generating its own MDX code, Analyzer can display data
from SQL Server Analysis Services cubes, whether these
are MOLAP, ROLAP, or HOLAP cubes. Analyzer can also
generate SQL queries that can drill back through SQL
Server to the original source data in data marts, data
warehouses, and operational systems like CRM and ERP.
Analyzer accesses these various SQL Server data sources
through the ADO object model. This seamless integration
provides users with multiple analysis options in the environments they are used to working in and are most familiar with.
The most common configuration for Analyzer includes
hosting the Analyzer application on your IIS web server,
which is connected to SQL Server and Analysis Services
(OLAP) each typically on separate servers. Analyzer
also performs extremely well in a load-balanced deployment, where IIS is load-balanced among several servers.
This works well for handling multiple, concurrent users in
larger organizations, and offers the users higher availability
through the use of failover.
Analyzer also integrates with your existing Active
Directory security environment, and can also integrate with
LDAP and other security configurations such as Kerberos.

06 The Ultimate BI Solution

Analyzer also integrates directly with the data access

security defined in your Analysis Services cubes in order to
limit access to only the data people need.
Analyzer was developed from the ground up using
Microsofts .NET application development framework.
Analyzer is pure ASP.NET/DHTML and was written
specifically for SQL Server Analysis Services with support
for SQL Server. Analyzer was written in C# using Microsoft Visual Studio as the integrated development environment.

Integration with Microsoft SharePoint

Server
Analyzers seamless integration with the Microsoft technology
stack also extends to Office SharePoint 2007.
Users can create custom SharePoint web pages by adding
web parts to a SharePoint page. Web parts are mini blocks
of web code that users can combine to create custom web
pages.
Users can access Analyzer directly from SharePoint
through Analyzers web parts. Analyzer offers two web
parts -- Analyzer Link and Analyzer Report. The
Analyzer Link web part allows users to access a
complete, self-contained Analyzer environment with full
functionality that includes report creation, analysis, and
administration.
Analyzer also integrates easily with Microsoft Office
PerformancePoint Server, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft
Internet Explorer, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting
Services, and more. This flexibility enables organizations
to operate in familiar working environments and ensures
rapid and lasting adoption by users.

Benefits

Companies that compete analytically dont entrust

analytical activities to just one group within the
company or to a collection of disparate employees
across the organization. They manage analytics as an
organization or enterprise and ensure that no process or
business unit is optimized at the expense of another
unless it is strategically important to do so. -- Thomas
H. Davenport & Jeanne G. Harris. 2007. Competing on
Analytics: The New Science of Winning. Boston: Harvard
Business School Press.
The value of information is now being extended beyond the
internal business users and out to customers, partners,
distributors, and suppliers. This is known as pervasive BI.
For BI to become truly pervasive, it needs to be easy to
access, easy to understand, and easy to share with all
users, both inside the company and out. Today, everyone
benefits from pervasive BI as they help manage corporate
performance, and Analyzer makes that happen.

Self-Service BI
Accessing data and developing reports can take a considerable amount of time and IT resources. Many IT departments
have full development queues that put delivery weeks and
even months away, and business today just cant wait. Even
if IT could turn around development quickly, business users
cant predict every possible report they will need in the
future. Todays BI must deliver a self-service environment
that allows users to freely create reports and views as
quickly as the business changes.
Easy to Learn
Many BI tools require in-person training courses, limiting
deployment to a select few power users and limiting
potential value to all users. With Analyzer, any user at any
level can begin creating reports immediately. No formal
training is necessary. Analyzers user-friendly design,
drag-and-drop interface, and context-sensitive menus let
users work in a familiar and intuitive environment, making it
easy for anyone to begin using Analyzer effectively right
from the start.
Reduced IT Burden and Costs
Report development is not the only burden on IT. There are
the initial costs to deploy reporting tools, as well as
installation and configuration activities. The cost of supporting reporting tools can quickly surpass the initial deployment costs. Extending BI beyond corporate walls becomes
even more difficult when there is little or no control over the
users environment. Analyzer removes the burden from IT,
making it simple to deploy, manage, and extend pervasive
BI both inside and outside your organization.
Quick to Deploy
Analyzer leverages your existing IT infrastructure,
integrating seamlessly with Microsoft technologies.

Analyzer is easily installed on existing Microsoft IIS

servers. There is no need for additional hardware. Because
users access Analyzer through a 100% zero-footprint
browser interface, IT no longer needs to spend its scarce
resources installing, configuring, and supporting user
software.
A Secure Solution
Role-based security provides users with a level of access
that matches their needs. Analyzer uses Active
Directory to control access, but can also work with other
security mechanisms such as LDAP. Analyzers tight
integration with SQL Server Analysis Services means any
security mechanism needs to be translated into the Active
Directory format. Because there are many different potential
authentication methods, Analyzer provides a web services
API to map existing user accounts to Active Directory. Users
are automatically added as general users and can be
regrouped into roles with varying degrees of access.
Analyzer also allows you to control access to specific
data for each user, as well as access to specific reports and
dashboards. This means each Analyzer report and
dashboard is able to show different sets of data to different
users.
Simple to Maintain
Not only is it easy to install and deploy Analyzer, but once
its up and running, Analyzer is also simple to maintain.
Analyzer requires no need for special monitoring because
it is based on Microsoft technologies and can be monitored
using the same monitoring tools used to monitor SQL
Server and IIS.
A Scalable Solution
A successful BI solution must be able to scale to handle
hundreds or thousands of users simultaneously. Analyzer
has been designed with these important considerations in
mind and is able to meet even the most demanding user
loads. Hundreds of users can be handled with a single
server, and Analyzers load balancing option allows it to
scale up to thousands of users.
Analyzer is also available in a software-as-a-service
(SaaS) model. Using SaaS, Analyzer can be hosted on
your server(s) and accessed easily by your customers, just
as if each customer had their own on-premises Analyzer
installation.
Easy to Extend
Any authorized user with a web browser can access
Analyzers full functionality, according to the permission
level you assign them, making it easy to extend BI beyond
your corporate walls. For multi-company requirements,
Analyzer is available in a multi-tenant version and
operates exactly the same as the single company version.
The value of your data extends beyond you and your
external partners. Analyzer can help you create new revenue
streams by allowing you to offer data and analytical tools to
your customers. OEMs can easily customize and integrate
Analyzer into existing applications. OEM developers can
use Microsoft Visual Studio to access and customize
Analyzers web services and APIs. Plus, Analyzers zerofootprint web-based browser interface makes it easy to
deploy and extend to customers around the world.
Benefits 07

Case Studies
WebTrends Extends their Passion for Analytics
with Analyzer
WebTrends Inc. provides solutions that dramatically improve
web results for many of today's largest companies and
most innovative marketers. They are passionate about web
analytics and share that passion in products and services
that help their customers optimize their web marketing
programs. WebTrends wanted to extend that passion to
their customers by providing an easy way to analyze data
from Visitor Intelligence, their key product for insight into
visitor behavior.
As a cutting-edge leader in web analytics, WebTrends knew
they needed a way to offer customers reporting and
analytical access to the information generated by their
Visitor Intelligence product. Visitor Intelligence manages a
comprehensive visitor Interest Profile that combines online
and offline data to provide insight into a customer over time.
For WebTrends customers, these reports must be customizable, easy to access, and intuitive to use.
WebTrends is pleased to have discovered Strategy
Companions Analyzer. They saw Strategy Companions
enthusiasm for analytics and found Analyzer to be the
best reporting and analytical tool on the market. Feeling
confident with their decision and ready to move forward,
WebTrends worked with Strategy Companion to embed
Analyzer into its Visitor Intelligence product. Barry
Parshall, Director of Product Management says the Strategy
Companion Technical Support department has been
brilliant. He adds, They have bent over backwards to help
us meet our schedules.
Integrating Analyzer with Visitor Intelligence went
extremely well and WebTrends is excited about the addition.
Analyzer was very easy to embed, relates Parshall. It is
much better designed for OEM-ing than we found in other
offerings. We have found Analyzer to be a unique blend of
incredibly rich functionality that has been easy to leverage.
Importantly, our customers find it easy to use. It is rare to
find a product of such impressive functionality that is so
straightforward for business users to understand.
Instead of focusing all our time and resources creating
reporting tools, Analyzer lets our engineering resources
develop solutions that provide higher value to our customers.
-- Barry Parshall, Director of Product Management

PH Tech Transforms its Healthcare Analytics

with Analyzer from Strategy Companion

PH Tech (Performance Health Technology Inc.), established

in 1996 with the launch of its Clinical Integration Manager
(CIM) medical management system, is now a healthcare
management industry leader. PH Tech solutions are used by
healthcare providers and payers in the analysis, design,
operation, and administration of managed care rules, such
as referrals and prior authorizations.
PH Tech believes the key to their success is providing
accurate, consistent information to its healthcare clients,
along with the tools needed to effectively analyze and
understand data that enables them to provide
professionally-managed healthcare services. In order to
further add value to the information through advanced
analytics, PH Tech embarked on a search for a powerful,
web-based analytics tool that was easy to deploy and use
for both clients and internal personnel.
Analyzer empowers PH Tech clients and internal users
with an incredibly easy-to-use set of analysis tools,
dramatically increasing the quality of their analyses,
resulting in deeper understanding of key healthcare
management issues. Coupled with advanced visualization
and collaboration capabilities, decision makers can now see
and communicate to others exactly the right information.
PH Tech customers can now easily create visuallycompelling reports consisting of one or more pivot tables,
charts, Key Performance Indicator scorecards, dashboards,
web pages, Reporting Services reports, and more. This
flexibility is enabling new types of healthcare management
reporting and analysis that previously were not possible or
simply too difficult or cumbersome to implement.
Although ease of use for customers was of paramount
importance to PH Tech, it was also important that the
solution integrate smoothly with their existing IT environment. Were a SQL Server 2005 shop and it couldnt be
easier to implement Analyzer and get people to use it,
stresses Chad Casady, Director of IT. The IT Department
was pleased that there was so little effort in adding Analyzer.
It just works!
With Analyzer, it is very simple to design charts and other
graphic representations of our data. Other systems seemed
much harder to use. -- Chad Casady, Director of Information Technology at PH Tech

08 Case Studies

Strategy Companion provides the most advanced and easy-to-use Business Intelligence front-end available
for the Microsoft SQL Server platform. Our Analyzer solution is now making Self-Service BI a reality,
leading to better business decisions and results for organizations worldwide.
3240 El Camino Real, Suite 120, Irvine, CA, 92602
Toll-free 1-800-905-6792
Phone 714-460-8398
Fax
714-460-8396
www.strategycompanion.com
sales@strategycompanion.com
support@strategycompanion.com
2008 Strategy Companion Corporation. All rights reserved.
Analyzer is a trademark of Strategy Companion Corporation.
All other trademarks are trademarks of their respective companies.